THE GENESEE EARMEE, 205 



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republic and our own countrj^, tlian in South America or Australia ; but sheep husbandry 

 is on the decrease in half the States of the Union, and it is hard to compete with those 

 that can purchase sheep by the thousand at three cents a head, and keep them without 

 hay, turnips, or shelter. Nor is it possible for any protective tariff that American 

 farmers may reasonably expect, to overcome the natural disadvantages attending the 

 production of wool on a large scale in the Northern States. All clear-sighted men see 

 the steady advance of free trade principles, whether they approve of them or not; and 

 it is obviously the part of wisdom to adapt one's business to the condition of things as 

 they actually exist, rather than as he may believe they ought to exist. Emigration, 

 change of pursuit, and fearless adventure, characterize in an eminent degree the age in 

 which we live. Agriculture is beginning to feel the eftects of this new-born energy, and 

 more fully developed love of novelty, called the spirit of progress ; and as faithful 

 chroniclers of passing events, we have deemed it our duty to call attention to the 

 equatorial fields of the South,' from which many million pounds of wool are now annually 

 received, and for aught that we can see to the contrary, indefinite hundreds of millions 

 may be yearly exported, before children now at school shall cease to need woolen fabrics. 

 The annual export of cotton from the United States increased over 800 per cent, from 

 1821 to 1849 ; and the wool trade of Brazil, Buenos Ayres, and other contiguous 

 nations, may advance with equal rapidity in the nexffquarter of a century. So far as 

 mutton shall be in demand in this country, particularly in the Northern States, wool 

 growing is likely to be profitable as a secondary interest; but improved land is begin- 

 ning to cost too much for extensive sheep-walks, such as abound on the vast pampas of 

 South America. 



ARTIFICIAL MANURES. 



The Working Farmer says that " The increased use of artificial manures in the United 

 States has been greater within the last year, than within any five years since the forma- 

 tion of our government." Whether this statement be true to the letter or not, there is 

 no doubt of the fact that American agriculture is about to exhibit a new feature in its 

 connection with the manufocture and use of the food of plants. Having steadily pur- 

 sued ah exhausting system of tillage and husbandry for two centuries, the cultivators of 

 the soil in the old States find it necessary to possess more manure than can be made on 

 naturally poor or impoverished farms. Hence, they are compelled to purchase guano, 

 poudrette, bone dust, ashes, gypsum, street manure, and other ofial from cities. This 

 necessity for more manure places farmers and gardeners in many places within the 

 reach of sharpers and speculators, who act on the maxim of Jemima Wilkinson, that 

 the world is a goose; and he is a fool who has no hand in plucking her. Brandreth 

 has realized a princely fortune from his bread pills ; Swain from his panacea ; Barnum 

 from ToM Thumb ; and why should not Mr. Mapes from his " improved guperphosphate 

 of lime" ? 



When the Misses Fox invented their spirit rappings not many rods from the Genesee 

 Farmer office, they were poor, and lived in obscurity ; now they support a fine estab- 

 lishment in the city oi New YorZ:, and have ex-U. S. senators at their feet as votaries ; 

 they have turned the head of a judge on the bench of the Supreme Court of the State, 

 and sent scores, perhaps hundreds, perfectly insane to lunatic asylums. When Joseph 

 Smith, then a resident of an adjoining county, got up his golden Mormon bible, the 

 writer obtained one of the first copies published, and heard the prophet's account of its 

 miraculous revelations to him. We did not believe that it was possible for such a tissue 

 of absurdities to gain proselytes in this age and country ; but experience has shown that 

 - K Mor monism has sufiiced to found an organized Territory under the United States gov- . r 



